Archive for June, 2015

Would you like to remembered for what you say?…. By everyone? Do you want others to respond to your message and wishes? Would it be worth your time to be a better Communicator?

Learn to connect to others’ emotions through a story.

One of the things I’ve observed and teach to others is How to Decode the Path to success. Briefly, the Path is paved with 7 major stones: Goal Setting and Planning; Establishing your Purpose; Dealing with Change; Managing your Time and Maximizing Productivity; Your Commitment to what you do; Your Attitude; and Taking Action.

Are there other major steps we could include or substitute? Probably, but that’s a discussion for another time. You have to accept my philosophy for the moment.

However, there are several tools which help us achieve the success we seek. One is how we communicate with others. One is how we persuade others. One is how we influence others. And there is ONE TOOL which helps us with these more than any other tool out there—other than winning the lottery—and that’s STORYTELLING.

Use stories to Persuade, Influence, Inspire & Engage Others to take Action. Use them to enliven your presentations, build Credibility. Stories help you Communicate with Passion and build your Team. Your leadership performance improves.

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A few years ago researchers at Amherst College performed a fairly simple experiment that produced some interesting results. They planted a squash seed, fed and watered the plant until it grew a squash about the size of a person’s head.

They then fit a band around the squash which was attached to instruments that would tell them how much pressure the squash exerted as it tried to grow against the constraint of the band. They expected that the squash would exert as much as 500 pounds of pressure. Sure enough, in a few weeks the squash was doing just that.

But the squash was not finished with growing. In two months it was producing 1,500 pounds of pressure. When it got to be 2,000 pounds they had to reinforce the bands.

The experiment ended with the squash pushing 5,000 pounds of pressure. But it didn’t end because the squash stopped growing. At 5,000 pounds it had broken the bands that had been measuring its force.

Further, when they cut the squash open they found it was full of incredibly dense fibers. It was the squash’s determination to grow that created the ‘muscle’ to push against its restraints. They also discovered that the plant had sent out over 80,000 feet of roots searching for the strength it needed to grow against the force holding it back.

This story was taken from a church sermon our priest delivered in May 2015. Its relevance to his message of faith is strong enough. But I’m sure it moves you as it did me with poignant levels of instruction in so many areas of life and business. We learn about its external show of strength to break the bands. We learn about its internal strength and the fiber density it developed so it could grow. Finally, we learn about the root system it created for foundational strength. I count 7 applications of this message. What do you see?

That’s what it said. So, I read on. (A blog comment by…someone) But I liked the content as he continued to explain that we can measure our levels of happiness in all areas of life by the discipline we give to that part of life. Health, education, attitude, commitment, relationships, family, friends, and on. I examined my own levels of commitment to discipline. Some good, some not so much. That’s to be expected. The ones that matter the most, however, deserved a closer look. That’s what I’d encourage you to do. And pass this along to your friends, clients, family.

The author says the two are so closely linked that movement up or down yields immediate results. And sure enough just examining my own situation, he’s right. One of my clients has been re-committing her sales generation activities by doing something you might not feel is a sales-related activity. She reads more. The topics are specifically related to her activities with clients: expected results, anticipated challenges her clients might have, google research on related but somewhat tangential topics, and more. She’s in wealth management.

So when there’s a downtime, nothing scheduled, no ringing phone, instead of pumping emails or some other non-essential activity she’s reading. And Mr. Google has helped her find some interesting topics she can take to clients. Information she can share with a client about their industry. This is where it’s about the Happiness:Discipline equation. Discipline to do the next thing. Discipline to build her business. Discipline to help a client in an unexpected way. Discipline to grow her relationships. What will you do?